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[darkhog]

So I want to make a big mod for the new DF. One that replace the dwarves with another species (though having the mechanics more or less the same).
Things I want to do for this mod:
- Make a species that is currently not playable and sentient being able to be used in the fortress mode- Replace dwarves with that species but without removing dwarves from the game (making them non-playable NPC race, similar to humans, elves, etc.).
Can someone walk me through what it would take for me to do it? All I know that it would be a huge undertaking, but I recently have been afflicted with a strange mood, so I need help before I go insane.

[smakemupagus]

https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Modding#Modding_civilizations_.28entities.29

This wiki guide was written for the old version, of course lots new about handling all the changes (especially graphics) in the new version, probably everyone else here is trying to figure it out by study/trial too.  All i can advise beyond that is look at mods that come out that are similar in content and scope to what you want to do and reverse engineer them.

[aradar]

Inside a entity_xx file define
[Object:Entity]
[Select_entity:Mountain]
[Creature:your creature] < add this line multiple times to increase the chances of this creature appearing on the world map

To make the race playable along side dwarfs instead add
[Entity:your_creature_race]
[Site_controllable]
[Creature: your_creature]

[Digganob]

Making a new civilization like that isn't too huge of an undertaking, especially if your civilization is going to be quite similar to dwarves already, and if the creatures are derivative of some other one. If your creatures are very unique, that's likely to be the hardest part of making the mod. I tried making a pretty strange creature for use in my own civilization, with several different castes and even magic, but it didn't take too many evenings.

What kinds of things are you trying to do with the mod? Anything specific we can help you with, beyond the modding guide already provided on the wiki?

[aradar]

I'm playing around with a custom warrior caste of breedable sentient creatures atm like dwarves but much stronger

[Digganob]

That's certainly interesting. First I'll say that all castes of a creature will inter-breed. So if you make a creature which is, for all intents and purposes, an elf, as a dwarf caste, it will marry regular dwarves (usually) of the opposite gender, and make children of a random caste of the creature. So you cannot really make a caste which separately procreates with others of a similar caste, as they will all intermingle.

Unless you're talking about something other than castes within a creature? Would you be more specific?

[aradar]

The warrior creature is a separate creature from dwarves I used two different interactions to summon the mating pair and their offspring is the warrior caste that I can put into squad positions

[aradar]

Also changing the playable civilization to a different civilization even a custom creature is not that difficult, building the creature is more difficult imo

[Digganob]

Ah I see. Any particular difficulties you're running into right now with development?

[aradar]

Creatures with layered graphics are quite a handful to setup even carbon copy's of dwarfs take some effort to setup

creatures with super simple graphics like 64x32 size tile though aren't too bad

[Digganob]

That is certainly true. I recommend using an already-existing graphics_X.txt file and using the find and replace function of a text editor to replace what is necessary with your own file names, etc. If your guys have any extra limbs or anything of course it'll still be difficult, but far less so than making your own from the ground up.

Also, if you want to do random graphics, you can use the Extended Creature Graphics graphics_X.txt files, either to give a good example of their use, or possibly the same as a vanilla graphics file, and replace the necessary sprites in his sprite sheets with your own, and then modify the file.

With some ingenuity it's all not so bad, depending on how crazy your warrior caste is.

[aradar]

when I first set up the graphic sheet I had some pretty hilarious issues going on I don't know how I did it but I had a male cast that was pulling every single graphic off of the tile sheet it would be sometimes a black character with a white head a white character with a black body a girl head with a beard I mean it was just all over the place made for pretty interesting dwarf though

[Digganob]

A dwarf with character!

Yeah, messing with this kind of thing is pretty complex, though luckily it's usually easy to see where issues are coming from.